Several years ago an Imaam moved to London. He often took the bus from his home to the downtown area. Some weeks after he arrived, he had occasion to ride the same bus. When he sat down, he discovered that the driver had accidentally given him twenty pence too much change. As he considered what to do, he thought to himself, you better give the twenty pence back. It would be wrong to keep it. Then he thought, oh forget it, it’s only twenty pence. Who would worry about this little amount? Anyway, the bus company already gets too much fare; they will never miss it. Accept it as a gift from Almighty Allah and keep quite.

When his stop came, the Imaam paused momentarily at the door, then he handed the twenty pence back to the driver and said ” Here, you gave me too much change.” The driver with a smile replied ” Aren’t you the new Imaam in this area? have been thinking lately about going to worship at your mosque. I just wanted to see what you would do if I gave you too much change.” When the Imaam stepped off the bus, his knees became weak and soft. He had to grab the nearest light pole and held for support, and looked up to the heavens and cried “Oh Allah, I almost sold Islam for twenty pence!” Remember, we may never see the impact our actions have on people. Sometimes we are the only knowledge of Quran someone will read, or the only Islam a non-Muslim will see. What we need to provide, InshaAllah is an example for others to see. Be careful and be honest everyday, because you never know who is watching your actions and judging you as a Muslim.

” And whosoever fears Allah and keeps his duty to Him, He will make a way for him to get out (from every difficulty).
And He will provide him from (sources) he never could imagine. And whosoever puts his trust in Allah,

then He will suffice him. Verily, Allah will accomplish his purpose. Indeed Allah has set a measure for all things. (At-Talaq 65:2-3)”

Message from ustadz aman Abdurrahman

All praises only belong to Allah, Who tests His slaves with ease and hardship. May Salawat and salam be showered upon His Prophet, followed by his household and Sahabahs.

Ikhwani fillah, know that the value of tawheed is high and the consequences is huge, to the extent that it must be paid with a lot of sacrifices, whether it be in the form of being killed, cruelty of torture by the enemies, as well as imprisonment or seizure of wealth and properties.

The commitment to tawheed in this era of the ghurbah will always be enveloped by the feeling of fear and worry towards the cruelty of the enemies, like Prophet Musa and his followers in Egypt and just as experienced by Rasulullah and the Sahabahs in the early period of Islam. But don’t let those feelings of fear and worry cause you to abandon this tawheed, as that is the character of the people whom Allah condemn in His verse:

Tawheed

“There are among men some who serve Allah, as it were, on the verge: if good befalls them, they are, therewith, well content; but if a trial comes to them, they turn on their faces: they lose both this world and the Hereafter: that is loss for all to see!” [Al Hajj : 11]

Namely, the people who want to commit to tawheed when the condition is easy and happy, and when the condition is grappling and dreadful, they abandon it.

But you must become the people whose belief in the truth of this tawheed increases in this time of ferocity with regards to the enmity of the thaghut and their ansar towards the adherents of this tawheed, who are not willing to be enslaved by them. But, were you to turn away from this tawheed, then Allah will replace you with others who love Allah Ta’ala more, just as He says:

“If ye turn back (from the Path), He will substitute in your stead another people; then they would not be like you!” [Muhammad: 38].

And His verse:

“O ye who believe! if any from among you turn back from his Faith, soon will Allah produce a people whom He will love as they will love Him.” [Al Maidah: 54]

Ikhwani fillah….. refrain for a moment from the pursuit of pleasures that can never end… Pay attention to your brothers who are currently in prison… be polite to the families of the Shuhada’s and those who are detained in the path of Allah, they are the Fuqarâ’ (poor) who are ashamed to ask, they are only the Hawa and the children who are incapable of doing anything except in shedding the tears of sadness and sorrow, they are the weak people whose do’a are answered by Allah. Rasulullah said, “That you are given victory and rizq is only because of the weak people amongst you.”

Ikhwani… What I believe in matters of tawheed along with their relations to today’s reality have been poured out in my writings and translations, be fervent in learning, be graceful in accepting the truth and always make do’a to Allah and ask for guidance. Don’t let shubhah shadow the faith because when shubhah is allowed to exist in the thoughts, it will become a disaster when accompanied by the desires of wanting to live freely and lavishly, like those who do not practice tawheed.

Therefore, bear the shubhah with faith that are sourced from the ‘ilm of Al Kitab and As Sunnah, and face the desires with patience.

I pray to Allah to give guidance, fortitude and patience, and husnul khatimah to us all….

My mom only had one eye. I hated her… she was such an embarrassment. My mom ran a small shop at the local market. She collected little weeds and such to sell… anything for the money that we needed, she was such an embarrassment.

There was this one day during primary school. I remember that it was field day, and my mom came. I was so embarrassed. How could she do this to me? I cast her a hateful look and ran away. The next day at school…’your mom only has one eye?!’ and they taunted me. I wished that my mom would just disappear from this world, so I said to my mom, ‘Mom, why don’t you have the other eye?! You’re making me a laughing stock. Why don’t you just die?’ My mom didn’t respond.

I guess I felt a little bad, but at the same time it felt good to think that I had said what I’d wanted to say all this time. Maybe it was because my mom didn’t punish me, but I didn’t think that I had hurt her feelings. That night…I woke up and went to the kitchen to get a glass of water. My mom was crying there, so quietly, as if she was afraid that she might wake me. I took a look at her and then turned away.

Because of the thing I had said to her earlier, there was something pinching at me in the corner of my heart. Even so, I hated my mother who was crying out of her one eye. So I told myself that I would grow up and become successful, because I hated my one-eyed mom and our desperate poverty. Then I studied really hard. I left my mother and came to Seoul and studied, and got accepted in the Seoul University with all the confidence I had. Then, I got married. I bought a house of my own. Then I had kids too. Now I’m living happily as a successful man.

I like it here because it’s a place that doesn’t remind me of my mom. This happiness was getting bigger and bigger, until someone unexpected came to see me ‘what?! Who’s this?!’ …It was my mother…Still with her one eye. It felt as if the whole sky was falling apart on me. My little girl ran away, scared of my mom’s eye. And I yelled at her, ’who are you? I don’t know you!!!’ I screamed at her ‘How dare you come to my house and scare my daughter! GET OUT OF HERE! NOW!!!’ And to this, my mother quietly answered, ‘oh, I’m so sorry. I may have gotten the wrong address,’ and she disappeared. Thank God… she didn’t recognise me. I was quite relieved. I told myself that I wasn’t going to care, or think about this for the rest of my life.

Then a wave of relief came upon me…one day, a letter regarding a school reunion came to my house. I lied to my wife saying that I was going on a business trip. After the reunion, I went down to the old shack, that I used to call a house…just out of curiosity there, I found my mother lying on the cold ground. But I did not shed a single tear. She had a piece of paper in her hand…. it was a letter to me.

She wrote:

My son…

I think my life has been long enough now. And… I won’t visit Seoul anymore… but would it be too much to ask if I wanted you to come visit me once in a while? I miss you so much. And I was so glad when I heard you were coming for the reunion. But I decided not to go to the school…. For you… I’m sorry that I only have one eye, and that I was an embarrassment for you. You see, when you were very little, you got into an accident, and lost your eye. As a mother, I couldn’t bear watching you having to grow up with only one eye… so I gave you mine… I was so proud of my son that was seeing a whole new world for me, in my place, with my eye. I was never upset at you for anything you did. The couple times that you were angry with me. I thought to myself, ‘it’s because he loves me.’ I miss the times when you were still young around me.

I miss you so much. I love you. You mean the world to me

My world shattered!!!

Then I cried for the person who lived for me… My MOTHER

Narrated by Abu Huraira

A man came to Allah’s Apostle and said, “O Allah’s Apostle! Who is more entitled to be treated with the best companionship by me?” The Prophet said, “Your mother.” The man said. “Who is next?” The Prophet said, “Your mother.” The man further said, “Who is next?” The Prophet said, “Your mother.” The man asked for the fourth time, “Who is next?” The Prophet said, “Your father.”

“And We sent not you (O Muhammad), but as a mercy for all worlds.” Surah Al-Anbia : 107

This post is devoted to Our Beloved Prophet On This Auspicious Occasion of Eid Milad un-Nabi

“Oh Lord, increase my marveling at You!”

I fell in love with the sweetness of this wonderful supplication of our Beloved Prophet (SA). How far can love reach? The Man of the highest illumination who ever lived asked His Lord to heighten His adoration towards Him! Allah the highest says in the Holy Quran:

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“There has now come to you a Messenger from amongst yourselves; grievous to Him is your suffering; anxious is He over you; towards the believers, kind and compassionate.”

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“He lowered unto the believers His wing of tenderness through mercy…” and “was the guardian of believers and nearer to them then their selves.”

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The Prophet’s greatness does not lie in His superiority of knowledge, wisdom, intellect or insight in every field, over every person, but in His poverty, nothingness, humility, slave-hood and modesty. He was the supreme authority on all levels, but in reality He was the Jewel of all the Allah’s servants. The greatness of His heart demonstrates that poverty is our greatest wealth. The more Allah blessed and favored our Beloved Prophet, the more He became humble and submissive. Everyday He asked for forgiveness a hundred times and prayed repeatedly to His Lord: “Glory be to You, we have not been able to know You as Your knowledge requires, O Know One! Glory be to You, we have not been able to worship You as Your worship requires, O Worshiped One!”

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All things begin with Him; all things are sealed by Him. He is the most dignified of men. He is the pride of humanity, the most Beloved and the most desired Prophet of Allah the Highest. But our most Beloved of hearts acted like any other person, this is the sublime secret of His being, the treasury of pure modesty. The eternal beauty of Allah is reflected in His tender heart in its fullest splendor. He never asked for anything, He never sought anything from His Lord.

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As soon as He was born, He prostrated Himself and said: “My community, My community. On the heavenly ascension, Allah wished to endow Him with all the riches of Paradise in order to please Him, but He answered with only one word: “My community, My community.”

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Does a greater beauty shine from a human heart?

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The light of Muhammad (SA) is the essence of all creation. There is nothing closer to Allah’s Light than the reality of Muhammad (SA). Both illuminated and illuminating he cried out: “Oh Lord, show us things as they are!”

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Prophet Muhammad (SA) encouraged equal treatment of slaves and kings.

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Rulers gained humility, slaves gained honor, tyrants gained peace and beggars gained dignity. This revolutionary change of character, making simple, primitive people into the highest of saints, is certainly the most outstanding miracle of our Prophet Muhammad (SA).

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Nobody impressed the whole of humanity so deeply. He is the key to divine knowledge, opening the eye of the heart which sees and hears the truth. He is the point where real human perfection starts, He is the goal of our all possible accomplishments. With Him we begin, with Him we end.

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Allah hides Himself, His essence from His believers, but He lets us know and find His reality through the beauty and goodness of Muhammad (SA).

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There are 70,000 veils between the servant and his Lord. These veils are screens for the truth.

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In the words of Sheikh Abd Al-Qadir Al-Gilani:

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“All created beings are a veil, with the exception of the Messenger of Allah (SA). For He is the doorway and means by which the goal is reached.”

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Sheikh Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi said:

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“All created beings have a shadow, with the exception of our Messenger (SA) for He is the first light, the source of light. The source of existence has no shadow. With this light we can see and understand Allah’s truth.”

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In true humility, The Messenger of Allah says:

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“My figure amongst the noble Prophets is this; a man builds a wall; he has finished it, except it needs one more brick; I am this brick. After me, there will be no more Messengers or Prophets.”

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“Say of me: The Servant of Allah and His Messenger (SA), so that you do not fall into exaggeration that the people manifest with regard to my brother Jesus.”

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For the perfect lover of the truth, He represents the satisfier of all our needs. To marvel at Him is the ascension of our souls. To hear of Him makes what is difficult easy, because Divine grace radiates on whoever contemplates Him. Sending Him salutations and blessings brings an immediate expansion of love in our hearts. Contemplating Him brings the greatest joy and illuminates the face of our soul. Wishing peace for His soul means true salvation, and touches the deepest interior of our hearts.

On being tried and tested

When the servant of God is in the grip of a trial he first tries to escape from it with his own efforts, and when he fails in this, he seeks the help of others from among men such as kings and men of authority, people of the world, men of wealth, and in the case of illness and physical suffering, from physicians and doctors; but, if the escape is not secured by these, he then turns towards his Creator and Lord, the Great and Mighty, and applies to Him with prayer and humility and praise. So long as he finds the resources in his own self he does not turn towards the people and so long as he finds resources in the people he does not turn towards the Creator.

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Further, when he does not get any help from God he throws- himself in His presence and continues in this state, begging and praying and humbly entreating and praising and submitting his needs in fear and hope. God the Great and Mighty, however, tires him out in his prayer and does not accept it until he is completely disappointed in all the means of the world. The decree of God and His work then manifest themselves through him and this servant of God passes away from all the worldly means and the activities and efforts of the world and retains just his soul.

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At this stage he sees nothing but the work of God, the Great and Mighty, and becomes, of necessity, a believer in the unity of God (Tawhid) to the degree of certainty, that in reality there is no doer of anything except God, and no mover and stopper except Him, and no good and no evil and no loss and no gain and no benefit, and no conferring and no withholding and no opening and no closing, and no death and no life and no honor and no dishonor, and no affluence and no poverty but in the hand of God.

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He then becomes in the presence of God as a suckling babe in the hands of its nurse and a dead body in the hands of the person who gives it the funeral bath and as a ball before the stick of the polo-player — kept revolving and rolling and changing position after position and condition after condition until he feels no strength either in his own self or in others besides himself for any movement. He thus vanishes completely his own self into the work of his Master.

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So, he sees nothing but his Master and His work, and hears and understands nothing except Him. If he sees anything, it is His work and if he hears and knows anything, he hears His word and knows through His knowledge and he becomes gifted with His gifts and becomes lucky through His nearness and through his nearness he becomes decorated and honored and becomes pleased and comforted and satisfied with His promise and is drawn towards Him. And he feels aversion for and is repelled from those besides Him and he desires and relies on His remembrance and he becomes established in Him, the Great and Mighty, and relies on Him and obtains guidance from, and clothes and dresses himself with the light of His knowledge. And is apprised of the rare points of His knowledge and of the secrets of His power and he hears and remembers only from Him, the Great, the Mighty, and then offers thanks
and praise therefore, and takes to prayer.

A subject to ponder over and over again

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As a religion that emphasizes equilibrium and justice in all aspects of human life, Islam also accentuates the outward and public aspects of religion to complement the inward and private ones. According to Islam, religion is not only a matter of private conscience, although it certainly includes this dimension; it is also concerned with the public domain, with the social, economic, and even political lives of human beings. There is no division between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Caesar in the Islamic perspective. Rather, all belongs to God and must therefore be regulated by Divine Law and moral injunctions that come from Him and are religious in nature.

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The public aspects of Islam concern every part of the community qua community, stretching from the local social unit all the way to the ummah itself and even the whole of humanity and creation. There are no relations between human beings and between them and the rest of creation that do not possess a religious significance, starting with the relations between members of the most concrete community, the family, neighborhood, village, or tribe, and leading to greater and less palpable units such as a province or state (in
the traditional Islamic sense of the term), to dār al-islām , or the “Abode of Islam,” and Muslim minorities in non-Islamic lands, to the whole of humanity and finally to creation itself. Islamic injunctions therefore embrace non-Muslims, whose treatment is covered by Islamic Law. Human relations considered by Islam include social transactions and interactions ranging from duties and responsibilities to one’s neighbors and friends to those toward orphans and the destitute, stranger Muslims, and non-Muslims. Some of the teachings of Islam in this domain are general moral instructions, such
as being charitable or just in all situations and toward all people and also other creatures of God. Others are formulated in concrete laws that have governed Islamic social behavior over the centuries, including the personal laws concerning such matters as marriage, divorce, and inheritance, which belong to the private as well the public domain.

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One important public aspect of Islam concerns economic activity. In contrast to Christianity, which, in its early history, displayed a certain disdain for mercantile activity and in which there are no explicit economic injunctions as far as its revealed sources in the New Testament are concerned, the Quran and the .H adīth contain explicit economic teachings. These teachings form the foundation of what has come to be known more recently as Islamic economics, although it might be mentioned here that the economic views of St. Thomas Aquinas resemble Islamic teachings in many ways. There are Islamic injunctions relating to how transactions should be carried out, the hoarding of wealth as well as its distribution, religious taxation, endowment (awqāf) , economic treatment of the poor, the prohibition of usury, and many other injunctions that became formalized over the centuries in various Islamic institutions and laws.

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The bazaar has always played an important religious role in Islamic society and continues to do so to this day. The guilds that have been responsible for the making of objects, from rugs to pottery, and the carrying out of projects of public economic significance, from the digging of underground waterways (qanāt) to the construction of roads and buildings, have always had a direct religious aspect and have been usually associated with the Sufi orders. According to the Islamic perspective, there is no such thing as economics considered in and of itself. What is called economics today has always been considered in Islam in relation to ethics, and religious injunctions have been promulgated to check and limit human greed, selfishness, and avarice, in an effort to prevent them from completely destroying the exercise of justice that is so strongly emphasized in Islam.

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The public aspects of religion in Islam are also concerned with military and political life, which is not to say that every Muslim ruler or military leader has followed the Islamic injunctions fully. There is an elaborate code of conduct in war based primarily on the defense of dār al-islām rather than aggression, fair treatment of the enemy including prisoners of war, prohibition of killing innocent civilians, and the like. There is much talk today about jihād , usually translated “holy war.” Actually it means “exertion” in the path of God, and in its outward aspect it is meant to be defensive and not aggressive. Whatever misuse is made of this term by extremists in the Islamic world or Western commentators of the Islamic scene does not change the meaning of outward jihād in the traditional Islamic context as an exertion to preserve one’s religion or homeland from attack in the traditional Islamic context. As for inward jihād , it means to battle the negative tendencies within the soul, tendencies that prevent us from living a life of sanctity and reaching the perfection God has meant for us.

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Islam is said to be the first civilization to have developed a fully codified international law that takes such matters as war and peace between nations into consideration. Likewise, there are extensive Islamic teachings concerning political rule, although, in contrast to the case of the social and economic activities, the Quran and .H adīth are less explicit about the actual form that government should take and much more explicit about the general nature of good government and just rulers. It was only later in Islamic history that the classical theories of Islamic government were developed, a subject to which we shall turn later.